Halloween is over. I spent it in costume at my brother's house, handing out candy to trick-or-treaters and spending some time with my brothers, my sister-in-law and my niece and nephews, who were adorable. Now that I don't have any kids in the house, I can enjoy how cute everyone else's kids are without the pressure of carving pumpkins, buying costumes and buying candy myself.

So now we pick up with Fall Vacation Part II:

So Thursday was spent in Ithaca. On Friday, Benjamin and I climbed into the rental car and drove for about four hours up to Fort Edward. The fort is mentioned in the movie Last of the Mohicans, as Monroe at doomed William Henry awaits reinforcements that will never come from Webb who is stationed at Edward. That "Edward" is this Edward. In my books, it's called Fort Elizabeth.

We checked in to our room at the Historic Inn of Fort Edward which is north of the site of the fort and east of the Hudson River. The inn is a wonderful, homey place run by very kind people. Debbie, who watches over the inn for its owners, worked there last year, and she remembered us. I took her a signed copy of Untamed.

The showers at this places are a-ma-zing! They've got granite and marble and they have jets coming out of the walls so that it's a shower and a massage. I've dreamed of taking another shower there. No joke!

This is Jim's Broadway Café — which now was free wi-fi. It's a wonderful, cozy place with plastic table cloths, delicious food and fantastic maple cream pie. Jim, the owner, was there the two days we were in Fort Edward, and he came out to say hello both days. He remembered us from last year, too.

In this photo, Cousin It is being attacked by Thing. Or that's what it looks like, anyway. It's actually me making some strange hand gesture while talking to the lovely and kind Eileen Hannay, who runs the Rogers Island Visitor Center. She shared a year's worth of news with us and the helped me renew my membership. I am now a Ranger Sergeant. She knows so much about the history of the place. And, yes, she's read my books, all of them. She's waiting for Naked Edge to come out.

This is taken from about the same place as the photo Benjamin took last year. There aren't as many leaves this year, because it got colder earlier in the season. Benjamin is standing on the shore of Rogers Island (Ranger Island) looking back across the Hudson River toward the site of Fort Edward (Fort Elizabeth). All that remains of the fort today are some deep, buried wooden beams that jut into the Hudson, some of which were torn up by dredging, unfortunately, and big wooden planks that were taken from the fort and used in some of the historical houses in town. Where you see a faint white shape on the shoreline — a little boat — is where the bateau bridge crossed the water to camp.

I stroll from the Rogers Island Visitor Center along the road that marks the historical shoreline of the island back toward the encampment where Robert Rogers and the Rangers truly lived during the French and Indian War. Everything from the left of the road was dredged up from the Hudson through the years.

Last year when I visited Rogers Island, I had to stop where Benjamin was standing when he took this picture. The private landowner wasn't letting anyone on the site of the encampment. He's probably afraid people will damage the archaeological sites or try to steal stuff. But this year, we were able to walk on to the actual site of the encampment. For me, it felt like a pilgrimage. To my left (also your left) you can see some of the excavated cabin sites. To my right is the excavated officer's cabin and the burial area.

I was able to walk right up to the excavated sites and look in. None of the artifacts remain on site. They're all safely in museums or stored away. But the foundation of the cabin — almost certainly an officer's cabin based on the artifacts found there — can be seen inside. They're covered with plastic. So think for a moment... This might have been Robert Rogers' actual cabin. It might have been the cabin that belonged first to Iain MacKinnon and then to Morgan. I wish I could have put up a sign that said, "Annie slept here."

Here's a closer view of the little enlisted cabins. This where Killy, Brandon, McHugh, Dougie and the others would have lived. The cabins stood in long rows with shared walls kind of like stalls and not really much bigger than that. The little covers you see here are in place to protect the excavated sites.

Here, you can see what was the cemetery for the Ranger war dead from the French and Indian War. It's marked out by stones. There are no headstones, possibly because they only had wooden crosses to mark their graves.

This put a lump in my throat. It's sad that it took so long to get this marker placed here. But Fort Edward/Rogers Island is one of the most neglected historical sites in the United States. It was British HQ during the French and Indian War (Seven Years' War), and that war and its aftermath are what created the United States. You'd think more care would go in to this place. I hope it will soon be a state park. There are folks who are working hard to make that happen.

I walked to the opposite shore of the island and looked toward the other side of the river where Morgan took Annie when she an Iain were married. So Ranger Camp is behind me and Fort Edward is across the water, also behind me. Where I am standing is close to the actual historical location of the infamous whipping post. It stood on the this shore not far from the latrines, which would have been to my left.

My heart fills with so many feelings when I visit Rogers Island. I found myself moved to tears standing there and looking across the water.

Sorry to have been gone so long. I've been doing as much nothing as I possibly can — while still working and ghostwriting. I'm going to finish the ghostwriting assignment this weekend for certain, so that will give me some real downtime, which I hope to use to refill my creative well, sleep — and clean my so-called house. (It's actually a junk pit.)

I spent the weekend of Oct. 14-19 in Ithaca and Fort Edward, NY, visiting my younger son, meeting his very cool friends and communing with MacKinnon's Rangers. It was time I so desperately needed, but it wasn't without it's own stresses.

The flights out and back were miserable, turning into an almost unbelievable saga. Sure, these things happen. But in a single trip?

On the way out, both flights were delayed, giving me ten hours of waiting in airports. Then I managed to lose my driver's license in the Philly airport, where extremely useless and rather rude customer service people provided precisely zero customer service. That left me trying to rent a car at 11 p.m. without a driver's license. No sooner had I pulled out of the parking lot, than a deer jumped in front of the car. I slammed on the breaks and managed to avoid crashing into it with the car I was renting without a license. Well, that was a blessing, anyway. I will admit, though, to using the f-word approximately a dozen times at that point.

I stayed in the dorms at Ithaca College, which was both fun and strange. I never stayed in dorms as a college student, so this was my first time in a college dorm. I slept pretty darn well, actually. Which is good, because after that awful trip — which started at 4 a.m. in Colorado and ended at 1 a.m. in NY — I really, really needed it.

The next day, I spent the entire day with Benjamin and his friends: his lovely girlfriend Lucy; his roomie from last year, Del; romance novel fan Anna; and filmmaking buddy Tyler. We went to breakfast at a place that served great lattés and eventually went in search of the gorges for which Ithaca is so famous. We found two, thanks to Anna's iPhone.

With all of us piled into the rental car we stopped first at Ithaca Falls. There's very little signage and no parking, so it wasn't easy for this out-of-towner to find. But it was breathtaking. It was raining and pretty chilly, but the running water and all the fall foliage were unbelievably lovely.

Fortunately, Lucy is a very talented photographer, and she snapped some photos for me to share. I almost never think to take a camera. Remember you can double-click on an image to enlarge it.

Above, Benjamin and I take in the beauty of Ithaca Falls. It's always mind-opening to stand in a place like this and think that it was crafted over many hundreds of thousands of years and has been there for centuries. For me, it was just so wonderful to be with my son, whom I miss horribly when he's away.

(Back, L to R: Me, Benjamin, Anna, Tyler. Front: Del.)

After that, we went in search of Buttermilk Falls, which was easier to find and had lots of parking. By then it was getting dark and was very chilly, but I enjoyed it. I love fall best of all four seasons, and there's nothing like fall in New York and New England.

I'm not sure why I didn't download an image of Buttermilk Falls by itself. But it is just as lovely as Ithaca Falls, though not as steep. There's an open park area with informational signs about how the gorges were formed. Then there's an area at the base of the falls where, based on the "No Swimming" signs people regularly go swimming. I took off my shoes and waded in the water a bit.

Then there are bridges that cross the "No Swimming" swimming area and lead to a trail that heads up the hillside — sorry, this Colorado girl can't say "mountainside" — alongside the water. I really love the photo below, because the layering of the rock and the stairs create interesting and similar patterns. Lucy is so fantastic at seeing little moments like this.

We stopped a fair way up the hillside at an overlook, where Lucy took the photograph at the top of this post. She snapped some photos of Benjamin and of me with Benjamin.

Then I insisted she let me get some pictures of her with Benjamin.

Benjamin and I agree that Lucy is quite adorable and wonderful herself. Not to mention, she's beautiful and smart and has fantastically thick hair.

Aw. Isn't that sweet?

After this, we made our way back down the trail and went out for pizza. It was a truly wonderful day.

Now, here's the fringe benefit of being my son's close friend. Both Anna and Lucy have read Naked Edge... Anna finished it in eight hours (!), and Lucy finished it likewise very quickly. Meg, another close friend, was away the first day I was there, so I missed here, which was a bummer. Meg was about halfway through the story before I left. No word from her what she thought of it yet.

Anna, as it turns out, is quite a romance reader. We talked Twilight and such, which was fun.

Last weekend, I finished tweaking the epilogue for Naked Edge. I'd kept it with me, sitting on it as if I expected it to hatch. Finally, I managed to come up with an ending that felt right to me. And by that I mean just the last two paragraphs. Yes, I spent a month thinking about the last two paragraphs of the story.

My editor has read it and thinks it's perfect. Her word, not mine. (But I'm happy that's the word she used.)

And then what happened?

Well, having worked so hard at the paper for so many weeks in a row and having worked either on the epilogue or on my ghostwriting project on the weekends, I just kind of... Quit. Doing. Anything.

I packed up my junk, or some of it, jumped in the car and beat a snowstorm to my dear friend Kat's house. I quit spending time with the fictional Kat James, and I went to spend time with the real Kat James and her husband Ray. We spent three days talking, eating and watching movies.

I highly recommend that if you haven't seen Dreamkeeper you rent it and watch it. It is without a doubt the best film I have seen about American Indian myths and stories. It features a who's who cast of Indian actors, some of whom I know, and is so creatively made that at times it left me almost breathless.

Kat and I also paid a visit to a real, authentic Danish bakery run by an actual real, authentic Dane. Being a dork, I walked inside, saw real Danish pastries (not the Danishes everyone thinks of) and... burst into tears. (For those of you who don't know, I lived in Denmark for three years and love the country. I have lots of friends there and miss it very much. I don't normally weep at the sight of well-made pastries.)

I got to speak Danish with the owner and decided to interview him for the paper so that I can have an excuse to come back and eat a bunch more pastries. He had Napoleons huer (Napolean's Hats), teboller, træstemmer, snegler, and something remarkably similar to tebirkes, my favorite.

In keeping with the theme of doing nothing, I decided rather spontaneously that I miss upstate New York and my son Benjy too much and bought plane tickets for a quick trip to Ithaca. I leave Wednesday and won't be back till the following Monday. We plan to hang around Ithaca for a day, going in search of the fabled gorges. Then on Thursday we're heading up to Fort Edward, which you know as Fort Elizabeth from my MacKinnon's Rangers series.

Yes, I'm going to visit the Rangers. I'm about to start Connor's book, so I need to breathe that air and sit on Rogers Island (Ranger Island) where the real rangers had their camp during the French and Indian War. Benjy and I plan to do a lot of nothing while we're there, mostly sitting around, walking through the trees and seeing the wonderful people we met last year once again.

I guess I have a desperate need to relax, and that's what I'm doing. I'm not sure whether I'll be able to keep up with the blog or Facebook or email, but I always try. Last time I was there, I used evenings to blog about what we did, so I'll try to do that this time. If I'm not too lazy...

I do plan to try to set up a Spanish-language blog and possibly a German blog when I get back. When I get some time.

Wouldn't it be nice if instead of Build a Bear stores there were Build a Bod stores where you could make the purrfect man? I can tell you I, personally, find soft male skin to be much more fun to touch than corduroy or stuffing.

Shoulders came in just ahead of pecs, but just behind abs. I must admit that surprised me. But I definitely agree that a man's shoulders are very sexy. Arms got 14 percent of the vote. I like both, but I didn't vote for either.

The part of the male body that you voted for last is the part that men seem to take most pride in — male genitals. What a blow to the male ego! Yes, a man's naughty bits came in last in your vote. I must admit that I was one of the few that voted for them. Why? Because they are very distinctly male, and I'm at the point where I don't mind admitting that I like to look.